Autor: Haaland, Janne Matlary

Buch: Veruntreute Menschenrechte

Titel: Veruntreute Menschenrechte

Stichwort: Einführung: Eucharistie; grobe Linie: Exodus, Pascha, Abendmahl, Tod am Kreuz, Auferstehung, Feier d. Eucharistie

Kurzinhalt: The action that God performed in the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus had been preceded by the actions he accomplished in the history of the Jewish people, especially in their liberation from slavery in Egypt ...

Textausschnitt: INTRODUCTION

1a I wish to do two things in this book. One is to discuss a type of theological thinking that draws on philosophical resources provided by phenomenology. The other is to carry out some theological reflections on the mystery of the Eucharist. The thoughts about the Eucharist will be offered both as ends in themselves and as illustrations of the theological style I wish to describe. (Fs)

1b Before addressing these two issues, let us review the articles of Christian faith that will be especially significant for our study. As Christians we believe that God has acted within the world and within human affairs. We believe that the central action God has performed occurred in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, who was not simply man but the incarnate Son of God. The culminating action in the life of Christ was his death on the cross, which redeemed mankind from sin and made it possible for man to participate in God's own life. The death and burial of Jesus were followed by his Resurrection from the dead, in which he entered, body and spirit, into a new, glorified form of being; his Resurrection revealed, confirmed, and completed what his sacrificial death had achieved. (Fs)

1c The action that God performed in the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus had been preceded by the actions he accomplished in the history of the Jewish people, especially in their liberation from slavery in Egypt; the Exodus not only freed the Jews from oppression but also established them as a special community within which God's glory, love, and justice were to be revealed: "In Judah God is known, his name is great in Israel" (Psalm 75:1). The ritual of the Jewish Passover, celebrated once a year, commemorated this liberation and establishment. Other Jewish meals, with their prayers and blessings, also proclaimed God's saving actions, especially his deliverance of his people. (Fs)

2a The death and Resurrection of Jesus were a completion of the deliverance of the Jews. It was a new Exodus, leading not only a single nation but members of the whole human race from the bondage of sin into the life of adopted children of God. Christ in his death was compared to the lamb slain at the Passover: "For our Paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed" (1 Corinthians 5:7). And just as the Passover reenacted the first Exodus, so the Christian Eucharist reenacts the death and Resurrection of Christ. (Fs)

2b Jesus established the Eucharist during the meal he had with his disciples on the night before he suffered. The Last Supper took place during the time of Passover and is presented as a Passover meal by the synoptic Gospels. It may in fact not have been a Passover meal, but it did take on the significance of the feast.1 At that supper, Jesus transformed the bread and wine that were part of the ritual of the meal into an expression of himself in his death and Resurrection. In doing this, he indicated that what he was about to undergo would fulfill the action that God accomplished in the Exodus. It would be the completed form of the Old Testament action, which was now to be seen as an anticipation of what occurred in Christ. (Fs)

3a Jesus instructed his disciples to repeat what he did at the Last Supper. The Eucharist, in its countless celebrations, was to allow the divine action of Christ's death and Resurrection to be reenacted throughout the world. The Eucharist was to allow the act of our Redemption to exercise its effect sacramentally, but still visibly and audibly and palpably, throughout the human race, to bring together before God the lives and the suffering of all who believe: "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him" (Romans 8:16-17). Through the Eucharist, the one action of God in Christ can be reenacted in all places and times. The one action is made able to spread sacramentally throughout the human race and we are enabled to participate in it. (Fs)

3b The Eucharist looks backward in time to the Last Supper and the death and Resurrection of the Lord, and, more remotely, to the Passover and the Exodus. It also looks forward to the eternal life that was won for us by Christ on the cross: "et futurae gloriae nobis pignus datur; the promise of future glory is given to us." The Eucharist images the eternal banquet that is the fruit of our Redemption. (Fs)

These elements of Christian belief will be the subject of our theological reflection. Before beginning our study, let us discuss what kind of thinking our reflection will be. (Fs)